"All Student Organisations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded. An Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students. Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge). No Student Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled."

Creation

After hearing about the defensive magic organisation, Dolores Umbridge used her power as Hogwarts High Inquisitor to pass this Educational Decree on 7 October1995, which forbade the regular meeting of three or more students without the High Inquisitor's consent. Any student found to be in noncompliance of the Decree was to be expelled immediately.[1]

Reaction

This Educational Decree disbanded all of the student organisations, like the Gobstones club and Quidditch teams. As such, there was initially some disapprovement from the student body, but as Umbridge eventually reformed said organisations, the main student body was not very affected by it. However, the members of Dumbledore's Army became upset and speculated that someone had told Umbridge about the meeting.[1] Regardless, they formed the group and secretly trained themselves in Defence. Eventually, Marietta Edgecombe betrayed the group, and Umbridge attempted to use this decree to expel all the members of the Army, which failed as Dumbledore took the blame for its formation, and said that the first meeting at Hog's Head was not in violation as the decree was yet to be formed, while the night they were caught was supposed to be the first meetings, as opposed to them happening for six months.

Technically, the students should have been expelled for joining Dumbledore's Army even when Dumbledore himself took the blame and claimed that it was only the first meeting, as it is still a meeting regardless of how long or short it went. Fudge may have spared the students because the decree stated "student organisations", in which this one would not count as it was supposedly formed by a teacher, or that the students were supposedly not aware it was a meeting at the time of invitation. Regardless, in the movie, Umbridge punished the members by forcing them to write lines for violating the decree.